


Tragical Romance and All

by omgbellamy



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Anne and Gilbert, Childhood, Conversations, Drama, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Leaving Home, Reflection, Romance, Shirbert, Spoilers, Talking, Teenagers, Tragical Romance, Weddings, anne likes gilbert goodbye, anne with an e season 2, gilbert couldn't leave his bbe anne, gilbert is a softie, green gables, it remains to be seen!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 10:26:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15241368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omgbellamy/pseuds/omgbellamy
Summary: My take on the talk Anne and Gilbert have after the wedding. Summarising both their thoughts on each other, the future and their general romantic prospects, because we deserved more than an implication of romance at the end of Season 2.





	Tragical Romance and All

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is my first piece on Anne With an E. I recently watched both seasons and I love anne and gilbert so much it hurts. Spoilers for season 2, since my babies had so much development. Hope you enjoy. :)

Anne sat quietly as the wedding precession went on. She was transfixed by the bride’s beauty and Sebastian’s handsomeness and how well the two seemed to fit together. In the space of a mere few months, it had changed and they had become one. It was like one of Anne’s romance novels, one of her own many fantasies for her own romance, only it was a really happy one.

"The wedding…it was beautiful, wasn’t it?” Gilbert said.

Nobody seemed to care that they were black like the folks did in Avonlea. Anne wasn’t naïve; she knew how they were treated, but it was beautiful to see Sebastian and his bride had found happiness all the same.

“Beautiful,” Anne agreed, voice small. There was something about Gilbert lately that unnerved Anne. He seemed more mature than before he’d left. He looked as if he’d grown taller, too, and filled out his clothes some more. Anne had to say on this particular day he looked like a man himself, dressed in his white collared shirt and big black coat. 

Her breath caught as she stared at him. She was aware her own heart was beating a mile a minute, and hated herself for thinking maybe Cole was right – maybe by some miracle, Gilbert Blythe did have a crush on her, and maybe just maybe the feeling was mutual.

“So I’m aware,” Anne began, “You’re leaving soon. So I’d like it if in that time, we both can refrain from arguing and being too at odds in class.”

“Well,” Gilbert said with a smile, “You’re going to have your work cut out for you, Anne Shirley. I do not give up.”

Anne’s breath caught, catching the double meaning in his words. “I’m very well aware, Gilbert Blythe.”

“But…you won’t be able to get rid of me. I’m…I’m going to stay with Bash and work the farm. College will wait for me. And with Miss Stacey’s help, I’ll be ready for college next year. Or when I so choose. There’s plenty of time for that.”

Anne tried hard to conceal her joy. But admittedly, she would’ve missed Gilbert. She considered him a friend now and as hard as she tried, maybe more. They were both still young, she at fourteen and he at fifteen, but she wasn’t naïve like most girls her age. She knew romances flourished in adolescence, and some were lucky enough to meet their true love so early. She didn’t know if it was true he had a crush on her like Cole said, but she guessed in the months to come she would find out. 

She had hated the orphanage and the curse it had bestowed upon her but she had learnt a lot from it too. Anne had heard the other older girls talking in their beds after lights out about other boys in the orphanage that they had kissed and touched. She knew about the intimate relationships of men and women, something Marilla said a girl her age should never speak about nor know about. 

Sometimes she tried to think about Gilbert as a romantic prospect. Never for too long though, because the thought thrilled and terrified her so. Her heart would jump out of her chest whenever he smiled at her, and when he laughed it felt like the sun was shining over all of Prince Edward Island.

“So you’re not leaving school early?”

He shook his head. “I want to be with my family. And if there’s anything I’ve learnt over the past year, is that family is everything. Now I have Bash.”

Anne smiled at Gilbert as he stared at Bash with his own smile. She hadn’t seen him look happy since before his father had died.

“And I…I’ve decided on my vocation, too. I have decided I am going to be a fantastic teacher. Just like Miss Stacey.”

Gilbert observed her, a flash of pride in his dark eyes. Because of course Anne Shirley Cuthbert had higher expectations than society wanted for her. Times were changing, he could see with the suffragette’s movement picking up speed and more women becoming feminists. It was one of the reasons he liked her over the other girls. And if he was being honest, he could never see her just being a man’s wife or a mother like most of the women in Avonlea.

She wasn’t conventionally pretty like Prissy, like Diana or even Josie Pye. She didn’t wear frilly clothes or bows in her hair. She didn’t have long lashes or brunette hair like the other girls. But she was different. Her freckles danced on her face like stars in the sky and her red, carrot-coloured hair shone in the sun like gold itself. She was alive and vibrant, and everything the other girls were not. She was destined for greater things, he believed, and maybe one day they’d experience those things together.

“Hm. Tragical romance and all. You’ll certainly be teaching them, if you become a teacher, Miss Shirley Cuthbert.”

Anne laughed and she took a breath before her next words: “It remains to be seen,” she told him, hoping he understood the double meaning, and Gilbert took the words in with a long nod.

If there was something he knew, it was that they both would be a tragical romance indeed.


End file.
